Hello! We haven’t posted in a while, but both Matthew and I, Jordan, are working full time jobs and doing a lot of other things. Not to say that this blog isn’t a priority, but in the whirr that has been the past month, DRA work has sort of fallen through the cracks. But expect to see a lot of upcoming content, and more consistently. We’ve got some cool pieces lined up.
Our first piece after that unplanned hiatus is an interview with music video director Djuna Wahlrab about her new video for Phosphorescent’s pristine “
Song For Zula”, one of my favorite tracks of the year (the video was co-directed by Phosphorescent’s Matthew Houck). Read the transcript below.
DRA: The video is a single take, correct?
Djuna Wahlrab: That is correct. We shot coverage too, for safety. But, while we were shooting, there was one particular take where Matthew and I just looked at each other when it was done and knew it was going to be the one. It was risky, but I think the song is so beautiful, it merited that we make the concerted effort to visually try and match that ambition.
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After opening in 2000, Wright has established itself as a leading force in selling modern and contemporary design. Known for cultivating the market for Harry Bertoia sculptures and selling the Case Study House 21 by Pierre Koenig, the auction house continues to acquire and sell the best art and design from 20th century masters. This week, the auction house will hold their Living Contemporary auction. As Wright’s team prepared for the auction, we were very excited to participate in an email interview with founder and president Richard Wright.
DRA: Among the current institutions that focus on design, what is Wright providing that no one else can provide?
Richard Wright: Wright provides a unique sense of style and connoisseurship. We are able to present pieces we simply love, and to explore new markets in addition to showing the established icons of the period. We’re able to do this because of our size and singular focus on 20th century art and design.
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Since 1994, Manhattan gallery Mondo Cane has provided New York City with an eclectic collection of 20th century and contemporary art, furniture, and designed objects. Owner Patrick Parrish is the creative force behind the gallery and showroom. Parrish’s eye for innovative and forward-thinking design as well as his knowledge of art and design history established Mondo Cane as a platform for not just selling furniture and objects but for initiating conversations about art, architecture, and design.
After visiting the gallery last year for the exhibition No Frontier with Volume Gallery in that coincided with the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), we at DRA have been avid followers of the gallery’s diverse work and Parrish’s blog, MONDOBLOGO. We were very excited to participate in an email interview with Parrish, which you can read below.
DRA: Mondo Cane has a wide range of 20th and 21st century furniture as well as art. How has the relationship between art and design directed your exhibitions?
Patrick Parrish: I just like to mix it up. It’s kind of intuitive, not really planned. If I see something I like, I go after it, and sometimes I end up with a show, and sometimes not. But regardless of the outcome, it is always interesting.
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Jeremiah Chiu and Renata Graw met in 2006 within two weeks of starting the graphic design program at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Right after their first project together, a mock promotional video for the 2016 Chicago Olympics bid, Chiu and Graw decided they worked well together. They ultimately started a studio with fellow designer Chris Kalis in 2008, right as graduation approached. Armed with business cards and a manifesto, Plural began spreading the word and looking to do projects for people they believed in. As they began building relationships with clients, they found themselves working with a range of artists, musicians, and arts institutions. Today, they continue to work for artists and galleries, including Volume Gallery,Document Space, Lyric Opera of Chicago, DePaul Art Museum, University of Illinois at Chicago, and MDW Fair. Their range of projects effortlessly integrates a range of visual communication methods with video, sound, and installation. The studio, which now includes designer Alexa Viscius, was nice enough to grant DRA an interview, which you can read below. The interview was edited for length and clarity.
Matthew Keeshin: How has your mission statement directed your practice?
Renata Graw: We wrote a statement right at the beginning and it was really about typography and the integrity of the design.
Jeremiah Chiu: But over time, we revised that statement from typographical work to conceptual design. Strong typography should be an inherent part of every project. That’s no longer a mission, that’s a given.
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DRA contributor Sarah Rovang interviewed renowned architect Michael Graves the afternoon before his lecture at Brown University on February 28th. Now, over a month later, new contributor Cody Fitzgerald reflects on the experience of hearing Graves speak. Cody is a Sophomore at Brown who is also the mastermind behind musical project Stolen Jars. Read his reflection below.
When I sat down in the Solomon Auditorium to hear Michael Graves speak, I had certain expectations. I imagined he would come out and present to the audience his extensive architectural portfolio, telling us of his design process and his technique and of how each building came to be, piece-by-piece, idea-by-idea. When Graves opened the lecture with some statements on the tradition of The Grand Tour of Rome, it seemed my expectations would soon be met. He would take us on a whirlwind journey through the history of architectural studies and wind up at his own work, giving us a real sense of where his work came from.
Read the rest of Cody’s response after the jump.
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